Celebrated every year on June 5, World Environment Day is the United Nations’ biggest annual event for positive environmental action to encourage worldwide awareness of the need to protect our planet. Since the first World Environment Day in 1974, the event has grown to become a global platform for positive public outreach on the environment in over 100 countries.
The theme of World Environment Day 2019 is #BeatAirPollution, calling on governments, industry, communities and individuals to take action to explore renewable energy and green technologies, and improve the air quality in cities and regions across the world. More than 6 billion people, one-third of them children, regularly breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and well-being at risk. That’s more than 90% of the world’s population. In many developing countries, people face the double burden of indoor and outdoor pollution.
Air pollution also goes to the heart of social justice and global inequality. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 97% of cities in low- and middle income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet air quality guidelines. That percentage falls to 49 in high-income countries.
The good news is that air pollution is preventable. Clean air is everyone’s right and everyone’s responsibility, and relates to many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Follow the live feed about events taking place around the world, take the Mask Challenge or take a simple action to help reduce air pollution. TropEco offers many ways to be involved in sustainable living on-campus, and of course you can keep up to date with the latest research on air pollution and the environment via the library's resources and Research Online.
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